


Reverse

by Abyssia



Category: Kamen Rider OOO
Genre: Multi
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-02-29
Updated: 2016-02-29
Packaged: 2018-05-23 10:16:30
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,941
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6113369
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Abyssia/pseuds/Abyssia
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>When Hina’s life is endangered, Ankh makes the tough choice to try and keep her alive even if it means risking her brother’s. Eiji however, is unsure how to feel about the whole situation.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Reverse

“Well, this sucks,” Ankh said loudly, scowling in frustration. “Chiyoko got us to come all the way out here, and the damn place is closed.” He kicked a piece of rubbish in frustration, stomping away from the storefront.

Eiji smiled weakly. “It’s no problem; maybe we can find a similar store on the way back?” he looked over to Hina, his face hopeful.

Hina shook her head. “No, there’s a reason she sent us to this store in particular. It’s the only place that sells the type of Indian tea that she wants.”

Eiji’s smiled strengthened. “Well, it can’t be helped,” he said with his incessant optimism. “Let’s just go back and tell Chiyoko-san what happened.” Hina nodded and smiled at him in return.

Noticing that Ankh wasn’t following him, Eiji craned his neck to see where he was headed.

“Ankh—Wait!” Eiji sputtered, running after Ankh into the alley. Hina was close on his heels, jogging past him to try and catch up with Ankh.

“Be careful! This area is full of construction, so we should really take another way.”

Ankh shrugged. “It’s shorter so what should I care?” He scoffed as he kept walking forward, kicking a warning partition to clear his path.

“Ankh!” Hina said again, more frustrated this time. “Don’t be so reckless.”  tried to grab his wrist, but he slapped her hand away.

“You’re really annoyingly clingy, you know that? It’s not like anything is going to happen,” he sneered at her, hitting the support of a scaffold with his hand as if to try and prove his point.

Hina scowled, her eyes darting to the construction platform above, watching it sway precariously.

Eiji smiled awkwardly, clearly trying to find a way to ease the tension. “Hina, don’t worry; I’m sure he still—”

The platform standing right next to Ankh made a sudden loud noise, creaking and teetering, looking moments from falling.

“Ankh! Look out!” She yelled at the top of her lungs, launching herself straight into his back. With her momentous strength, she shoved him forward, reaching up to try and keep the platform from falling on her as well.

“Hina-chan!” Eiji yelled, his voice breaking as he saw Hina all but disappear in the wreckage.

Ankh was sprawled on the sidewalk, looking back at Hina with wide eyes. “Oi! What the hell do you think you’re doing! Are you stupid!?” Ankh reached towards her, grabbing her hand that hung limp before her. He swore, “Oi! Eiji! Lift that so I can get her out!”

Eiji nodded shakily, needing to pull himself out of a momentary daze to begin clearing the rubble.

“Oi! Oi—!” Ankh continued to yell, his voice a mixture of anger and growing desperation.

“Hina—Hina can you hear us?” Eiji’s throat became thick with building tears. Once Hina was free, he helped drag Hina to safety.

Her eyelids flickered open for a moment. “Eiji…?” Hina asked, her lips hardly even moving.

“Hina-chan!” Joy spread across his face for a brief moment. “Thank goodness, you’re alright—”

Hina was looking at Eiji. She was looking straight up at the man who held her. Ankh kept a steady grip on her shoulders, looking down at her with his face still hard-set.

“Ankh.” A ghost of a smile graced her lips. “You’re alright.”

“Tch, of course I am,” Ankh scoffed. “I know you care about your brother, but this is just stupid!” His mouth quirked briefly before looking down at Hina for her response. “Oi…” he said softly, shaking her shoulder gently. “Hey, answer me.”

Hina’s eyes drifted shut again and she fell limp in Ankh’s arms.

“Oi! Wake up!” He leaned forward, shaking her before Eiji pushed him back. Ankh grimaced, watching Eiji begin to check her vitals.

Eiji’s face grew pale. “Ankh, this is bad, she isn’t breathing!” Eiji’s voice became filled with panic as he desperately tried to think of what to do. “We need to get her to a hospital as soon as possible—”

Ankh wasn’t listening, because something in him had gone off. Hina had gotten hurt trying to save him, to save her brother. And whether or not she cared about Ankh himself was besides the question, but in his mind there was only one option. He could feel Shingo growing in strength, reacting to his sister’s situation. Shingo’s voice grew louder and louder in his head, and Ankh was being crowded out. Figuring that Shingo could last at least a little while on his own, Ankh let go, withdrawing the tendrils of his mind back into the only form that he could still call his own. In a few calculated seconds of flight, he floated from the body of Izumi Shingo, straight onto the arm of Izumi Hina.

While he regained his footing, he could feel she wasn’t nearly as far gone as her brother had been. And on top of that, she wasn’t nearly as accepting. It was the same darkness that he remembered when possessing Shingo’s body. The body was there, still living. Hina was there, bright and pulsating. Her name was on the tip of his tongue, he needed to call out to her--“Hey! You better make it! Otherwise that weirdo older brother of yours is gonna—”

The further he went into her mind, the brighter everything became, until he finally emerged in daylight, standing in a wide open field. Everyone’s mind was different, and somehow this scene didn’t surprise him. His next job was to find her, and to make sure that she didn’t disappear before he could save her.

“Hey!” He yelled, cupping his hands around his mouth to amplify his voice. “Do you want to die? Hurry up and come out!” Maybe it was something different about their personalities. Shingo had been ready and waiting, desperate for any means to continue to do his job. Such a naively selfless soul was easy to take control of. But Hina, she was nowhere to be found.

Suddenly, a horrifying thought occurred to him. What if he was already too late? What if the damage was too great and she had already slipped away?

He screwed up his resolve, gritting his teeth before shouting again. “Eiji’s already annoying enough; how do you think he’ll act if he knows that I let you die? Huh? Hina?! Answer me!” He thrashed his fists at a nearby sunflower causing it to snap and tumble to the ground.

With a gasp, his eyes focused on a small crumpled form right there in the grass next to him; she had been there the whole time. Ankh grimaced, leaning down and grabbing her shoulders to try and shake her awake. “Oi! Hina—” he said, his voice a little quieter than before. “You’re not going to die, okay? I don’t need that guilt weighing me down.” He grimaced, watching her with growing annoyance.

Hina’s face twitched only slightly, and he saw her eyes begin to flicker open.

“…Ankh…?” she asked weakly.

It only occurred to Ankh then that he had no idea how he appeared to her. Looking down at himself for a moment, he saw that he appeared just as he did when possessing Shingo. It was Hina’s mind after all, and this was how she knew him.

“Okay, you need to hang on. This won’t be pleasant for either of us, but I need to get you to the hospital.”

Hina’s eyebrows knit together, confusion forming in her features. “If you’re here…” she seemed to be regaining enough of her awareness to understand what had happened. Ankh was touching her, so their memories began to become intertwined, her eyes grew wide again. “But— what about my brother? Will he be all right?!”

Ankh scoffed. “He’ll be fine. He’s strong enough now to last a few hours on his own, don’t worry.” A soft sort of sadness flickered across Ankh’s features. A change that Hina didn’t miss.

“Ankh…”

“Just ease up, all right? You have to let me take over.”

Hina’s face broke into a wide smile. “Thank you, Ankh.”

Ankh’s breath caught in his throat, just as he saw her fade into a burst of gold light. Everything around them swirled into a vortex of light.

He then found himself blinking awake, feeling life surge through Hina’s limbs; Hina was still there, just dormant, waiting for her body to be healed again.

“Hina! Hina can you hear me?” Hina still lay still in Shingo’s arms for a few moments longer. In a moment, her eyelids began to twitch, and her possessed right arm jerked up in a burst of new life, dragging her upwards into a sitting position. “Ankh!?” Eiji asked in utter confusion, “but—what about the detective—” He looked over to the body that was previously Ankh’s, who was to everyone’s surprise, sitting straight up and totally lucid.

“Good news,” Hina’s voice said, lower and full of a foreign kind of haughtiness. “She’s not nearly as bad as her older brother was, but she needs care.”

“Yes, of course,” Eiji said emphatically, looking to Shingo who seemed to still be processing what was going on, his face pale.

“Hina—Ankh I mean…” Shingo pulled his hand away from the back of Hina’s head, it was covered in blood. “We need to go now—” Even though Shingo was considerably healed, he was still looking shaky, even as he held Hina’s form, his eyes were drooping and his breathing was growing shallower.

“Detective?” Eiji exclaimed, starting to look more than a bit overwhelmed.

Ankh pulled himself away from Shingo, standing up and tossing Hina’s  hair over her shoulder. “She’ll be fine as long as I’m possessing her. You, however, you need a hospital more than she does.” Just as he said that, Shingo’s consciousness suddenly left him, leaving him to collapse against Eiji.

“Detective— detective!” Eiji grabbed Shingo’s shoulders, shaking him but to no avail.

Hina’s head rolled, her mouth spreading into a smug grin. “See? What did I tell you? I don’t intend to take up this girl as a new host, so I want to keep that one serviceable.”

“Ankh! Stop talking about them like that! These are human beings!”

“Yeah, yeah I know. I’m keeping them alive; isn’t that enough for you?” Ankh said with an exasperated sigh.

Eiji gave a dissatisfied pout.

Ankh scoffed. “Once this girl can survive on her own, I’ll clear out. It’s super weird, anyway.”

“Yeah…you can say that again.”

Ankh frowned. “I’m doing you a favour, you know. I could just let her die, it’d make things easier for me.”

“Ankh!” Eiji’s face twisted in anger and annoyance.

Ankh then cracked a grin, giving a short haughty laugh. “See, that’s what I’m talking about. You’ve been really attached to this girl for some time now.”

“And you say that like it’s a bad thing.”

Ankh scoffed again. “Anyway, about what I said about that guy’s body. Let’s make sure he doesn’t die.”

Eiji nodded solemnly. “All right, what do we do now?”

Ankh ground in exasperation. “Just call an ambulance.” He reached into Shingo’s pocket, pulling out the cell phone and tossing it to Eiji. “Now hurry up.”

・・・

It didn’t take too long to get Shingo admitted to the hospital. The only consideration was trying to make sure that it was a different hospital from the one that Ankh rampaged at a while ago. Ankh seemed none too eager to hang around the hospital, ready to leave things up to the staff.

“Ankh, don’t you think that Hina would rather stay with her brother?”

He shrugged. “What good can she do for him? He’s unconscious, she’s unconscious. I really just want to get home before she gets much worse.”

“Eh?”

“They treated her injuries, but her body is still not fully cooperating for some reason. It’s a nuisance just to walk around.”

“Oh, I see.” Eiji trailed off, flicking his eyes down briefly. For the first time since the accident, Eiji was able to get a good long look at Hina, or more so, at Ankh. He had gotten so used to seeing the detective’s face and body move on Ankh’s command that he had basically come to think of that appearance as Ankh himself.

But now this was different. He felt like he could begin to understand what Hina might feel every time she saw her brother being strung along like a puppet.

Hina was still herself, and yet almost everything had changed. Her hair had become an almost blinding golden blonde, combed to the right side with even the same undercut and thin braid. Her face overall seemed harsher, perhaps due to how Ankh kept it in a hard scowl.

“Oi, the hell are you looking at?” Ankh snapped.

“Oh, nothing.” Eiji replied quickly, looking away in embarrassment.

Hina’s normally soft and gentle voice came out deep and low, sounding like some sort of Yankee. Her stance was heavily leaned to the side, one hand on her hip and a bored expression on her face.

Ankh gave an annoyed tut. “How long do you think I’ll have to wait?

“I don’t know…” Eiji admitted, “but for now I think we should try and find a place to rest so that Hina can heal. There’s no way we can let Chiyoko see her like this, so--”

Ankh’s head perked up, and he angled his steps suddenly to the right, walking with purpose in the exact opposite direction of the cafe.

“Ankh?! Where are you going?”

“To the Izumis’ apartment,” Ankh said as if it were the most blazingly obvious thing in the whole world. “I now know where Hina hides her spare key.”

“Ankh!” Eiji protested. “You can’t just go into their house like that!”

“Sure I can,” he drawled, attempting to shove Hina’s hands into pockets that she didn’t have, hands instead just sliding off her skirt. “I’ve been there before, so it’s no big deal.”

“But—”

“Hina’s body needs to rest, and that’s the only place. I’m not asking you to come,”

Eiji’s mouth screwed up. “Well, I’m coming anyway. I need to make sure that Hina is properly taken care of.”

Ankh shrugged, waving a hand dismissively. “Whatever, suit yourself. I was gonna sleep on their extra futon anyway.”

 

・・・

 

Eiji, still no less apprehensive about the whole situation, didn’t want to be away from Hina in her precarious situation, and yet being with her in this state was confusing for him at the very least.

Arriving at the apartment was no different. Ankh was silent, walking in like he owned the place. Something about it seemed odd to Eiji, being in the Izumis’ apartment when neither of them were fully aware of it.  He bowed respectfully at the door and removed his shoes, even as Ankh ignored both customs. Eiji even caught sight of the shrine to the siblings parents, and he gave his respects quietly while Ankh thrashed around looking for the futon.

“No good,” Ankh said finally. “They must have thrown it out. I guess I’ll just use her bed.”

While waiting for Ankh to finish his noisy search, Eiji had found a place to sit in the living room. He craned his neck to give Ankh an offended look. “Ankh—you shouldn’t go in there—that’s Hina’s room!”

Ankh gave him a questioning look. “What, would you rather I just sleep on the hard floor? That wouldn’t be taking care of her body, now would it.”

Eiji looked down, biting his lip as Ankh did have a point.

Not fully satisfied, Ankh strode over to where Eiji sat and placed both of Hina’s hands on either arm of Eiji’s chair, staring him down.

Hina’s face was now incredibly close to Eiji’s, eyes narrowing and head tilted “What’s wrong with you? You’re acting all weird and jumpy.”

“What are you talking about? I—I’m totally fine.” Eiji had always been strict with himself to not let his thoughts get out of hand. They usually never did, by virtue of him never being allowed to spare a thought for himself. But every now and again he’d slip. Sometimes when Hina was wearing a particularly cute costume, or the light caught her profile in just the right way. Hina was very pretty, and so very kind. But she already was far too involved with him. If he had a choice, he would make sure that she wasn’t affected by the situation at all.

“You’re a crap liar, Eiji. Don’t even bother, it’s annoying.” Ankh then leaned Hina’s face somehow even closer. It was something that was meant to be intimidating, but instead it just set Eiji’s skin ablaze. He wanted to push Ankh away, but that meant possibly injuring Hina. She was already hurt enough, so it wasn’t something that he could even risk.

“What, are you mad at me ‘cus you think it’s my fault that Hina’s hurt?”

“No—” Eiji began, his mouth hanging open as he searched for words. “It’s just…It’s super weird, seeing Hina-chan like this.” He looked down, forcing himself not to think about Hina. Not her eyelashes, her skin, her lips-- none of it. It wasn’t Hina at that moment, it was Ankh.

Ankh rolled his eyes in annoyance and pushed himself away, taking a few steps with a hand on Hina’s hip. “Whatever. I’m starting to feel dead on my feet. Stay or don’t.”

Eiji buried his face in his hands, heaving an enormous sigh. Part of him couldn’t believe that it had come to this. Part of him felt like he was intruding on Hina, but on the other hand he just wanted to make sure that she was okay.

・・・

 

Eiji’s eyes snapped open, willing for the images of his dream to disappear. He looked around in utter confusion, before deducing from the photos that he was in Hina and Shingo’s apartment. He gave a heavy sigh, only then realizing that he had fallen off of the couch and onto the floor.

Even then, after allowing himself to calm down, he was still by no means prepared for what was awaiting him. Ankh emerged from Hina’s room, clearly having spent some of the time searching through Hina’s closet to find everything that could possibly suit his somewhat edgy tastes.

“The hell are you doing?” Ankh asked, frowning down at Eiji in confusion.

“Nothing!” Eiji said, plastering a huge smile on his face. “I’m just getting ready to start the day!” He scrambled to his feet, assuming a confident stance as Ankh still stared at him sceptically.

Ankh had picked a collection of clothes that Hina had clearly bought or made on a whim but had never found the courage to wear before. It was tight black leather with glaring red accents, and the more Eiji noticed, the more he forced himself to maintain eye contact.

“So…Ankh,” he began awkwardly. “Since being in Hina’s body….have you, have you noticed anything?”

“What do you mean?”

“Like…about, I mean—” he struggled to continue. “About— the, differences!”

Ankh narrowed his eyes at Eiji, taking a moment to respond. “yeah, human females are different than human males,” he shrugged. “even I know that.“

“You mean—” Eiji’s face went beet red.

Ankh raised an eyebrow. “What the hell are you so flustered about? I doubt you would want to be around even Hina if she was in dirty clothes. Humans are so weird sometimes.”

Eiji couldn’t even respond. His thoughts were spilling over with the concept of Ankh undressing Hina and seeing her naked body. Even if humans were just another species of animal to Ankh.

But for Eiji it was something momentous. It was like Hina’s privacy had been violated. And yet, it puzzled him that the same things never came to mind when it came to her older brother. It was simple, he thought to himself. It was simply a matter of how long he has now known Hina, as opposed to only knowing the detective a few short hours.

Satisfied with this conclusion, Eiji was able to come back to reality with a smile on his face. Or he was, until he saw that Hina’s face was now once again only a few mere inches from his.

“Seriously, you are acting so weird. It’s pissing me off.” Ankh frowned. “Is that what you’re worried about? That I’ll do something creepy to Hina’s body?” he chuckled. “I’m not the one who thought of that stuff, you did. So tell me, what does that say about you?”

Eiji snapped, thrusting his arms out on shoving Ankh away from him. It was an action that he instantly regretted, but it somehow made him able to breathe properly again. “The most important thing here is that we make sure that Hina is healthy so that you can return to the detective’s body!”

Ankh rolled his eyes. “I know, I know, I got it,” he said with a deep sigh of exasperation. “Speaking of which, aren’t we heading there now? Let’s hurry up.”

 

・・・

 

Back at the hospital, Ankh and Eiji sat just outside of Shingo’s hospital room, waiting for permission to go inside. As usual, Ankh was eating a popsicle placidly.

“Ankh, are you really sure that you should be eating that?”

“Yes. Somehow it tastes even sweeter this way. Could it be that Hina likes sweets more?” Ankh held the popsicle in Hina’s mouth, pondering for a moment.

Eiji swallowed nervously. “Remember how upset Hina got at you feeding the detective nothing but sweets? I don’t think—”

Ankh grinned. “It’s not like she has the power to stop me right now. Might as well take advantage of that—” The hand that held his popsicle suddenly jerked away from Hina’s mouth. It continued to evade him even as he chased it with Hina’s mouth. He snapped at it until suddenly he couldn’t open Hina’s mouth, no matter how hard he tried. Hina was regaining control, there was no denying it. Her left arm suddenly twitched beyond his control and he looked down in horror. “Hey! If you’re better already at least—”

First her right hand flexed, tossing his beloved ice cream bar onto the floor. “Hey—!” He exclaimed, just as her hand latched around her own right wrist, which in Ankh’s panic, had reverted to his Greeed form.

“Hey—! Oi! That hurts! Crazy woman!” His voice became distorted as he became separated from Hina’s arm with a loud popping noise.

Hina glared at the disembodied arm, her face formed into a scowl. “Ankh. A human body can’t live on just ice cream alone.”

Ankh let out a loud yell as she tightened her grip around him. “Okay! Okay! I promise I’ll take care of your brother! Just don’t kill me so I can go back to keeping him alive!!” His usually cocky tone had started to sound just a touch desperate. For all he knew, she was probably entirely capable of crushing every single one of his core medals.

Hina smiled, relaxing her grip on Ankh, holding him almost tenderly. “Very well. Just uphold your promise.”

Ankh flexed his fingers in annoyance. “Sure, whatever. Just let me go.” He  twitched in the direction of Shingo’s hospital room.

She nodded and released him, watching the disembodied hand float up, behind the unsuspecting doctor and back into Shingo’s room.

Eiji took a few moments to look at Hina again, this time seeing her as she always was. She sat up straight and her arms rested carefully in her laugh. Everything was as it should be.

“Hina-chan?” Eiji asked tentatively.

“Eh?” Hina turned to him, her eyes wide. “Eiji-kun…” She put one of her hands to her head, scrunching her eyebrows together. “I think I just had a very strange dream…” Staring into the distance, she fought to remember what happened.  “Oh!” Realization flooded her face and she turned quickly to Eiji. “My brother--where is he, is he all right?”

Eiji gave a soft chuckle, nodding at her reassuringly. “Don’t worry about the detective’s body; he was alive and breathing when I last checked.” Just as he said as much, they heard a loud crashing noise from inside of Shingo’s room and subsequent yelling. Hina and Eiji looked at each other before rushing inside.

“I told you I’m fine, so just buzz off!” Ankh yelled, standing up from the hospital bed while attempting to free himself from the various wires and monitors.

“Ah! I’m sorry—” Hina said, sweeping past a doctor to grab Ankh’s hands to stop him. “I’m sorry about my brother, but he is really fine, just, please leave him to me—I’ll make sure to get everything taken care of.” She spoke with the doctors for a few moments, confirming and apologizing until they finally seemed satisfied and left.

Hina blinked, turning back to Ankh and preparing to speak, “Ankh, I—”

“Don’t bother,”

“But I,” her hand continued to grip around Ankh’s wrist, causing him to look at her. “Thank you Ankh, you saved me.” She smiled at him, brightly and genuinely.

Ankh looked at Hina for a few long moments, needing to fight to tear himself away. “Whatever,” he said with a grunt, not shoving her off immediately, and that seemed to be enough for Hina.

・・・

 

It was still morning as they left the hospital, and so a distinctive chill remained in the air. Hina shivered in the cold, rubbing her hands up and down her upper arms. Finally, she seemed to fully realize what she was wearing. She looked down at the tight corset top, leather skirt and fishnet with confusion.

Eiji, clearly wanting to avoid the situation, simply took off his jacket and placed it over Hina’s shoulders. “There, is that better?”

Hina nodded. “Yes…sorry, I guess I’m still a little dazed from yesterday.”

Eiji smiled and nodded back. “Of course, anyone would be. Just make sure to get plenty of rest, and make sure to speak up if anything feels wrong,”

“Pah,” Ankh began, irritated. “If she was well enough to almost kill me again, she’ll be fine.”

Hina’s lips turned down into a frown. “You could have at least tried to take care of my body, you know!”

Ankh grimaced, bearing his teeth at her. “I did! You’re alive, aren’t you? And what’s more, I even picked you out some decent clothes.” He seemed genuinely offended that Hina didn’t fully appreciate all that he had sacrificed for her sake.

“Eh?” Hina’s mouth fell open in shock as she looked down at her clothes again. “Wait, Ankh, did you—?” She looked back at him, her face bursting out in a deep flush as the realization hit her.

“You too?” Ankh said in exasperation. “I was just doing as you wanted—”

Hina clapped her hands to her face, her eyes wide with horror. “If—if you saw then…then that means that Brother—”

“Oi—” Ankh reached towards her, starting to become confused by her reaction.

Hina let out a high-pitched screech when Ankh grabbed her wrist. She lifted him off the ground and launched him over her head with her usual ease. Ankh landed painfully in a pile of garbage just behind them.

“Seriously!! What is the big deal with you two? You acted like I committed a crime or something!” He grumbled loudly, clutching his right arm as he staggered up from the ground.

Hina instantly regretted what she did and attempted to apologize. Ankh brushed both her and Eiji off and hobbled away from them. “Crazy…freak…” he muttered.

Eiji frowned. “Ankh!”

“I had no idea how long it was going to take you to wake up,” Ankh said finally, gritting his teeth while avoiding her eyes. “I thought you’d want me to keep your body clean and in good shape, but I guess I was wrong.” He continued to sulk, nursing his right arm, a few silver medals slipping out of his grasp.

Hina’s eyes widened as she dashed forward to pick up the fallen medals. “Ankh—Ankh wait!”

“What.” Ankh turned around, fully prepared to face the brunt of more complaints, but instead saw her holding the fallen cell medals out to him.

“You need these, right? I’m sorry. This means I hurt you.”

Ankh scoffed, swiping the medals out of her hand and re-absorbing them. “If Eiji here weren’t so terrible at collecting medals I wouldn’t have to pinch pennies like this.”

Hina couldn’t help but smile, it seemed like Ankh was going back to his normal self. Eiji responded to the jab just as he always did, and quickly the two fell into their usual banter. Something about it was oddly comforting. While they were arguing on the surface, to Hina it was clear that this was just how they could comfortably express their bond.

Just then, a thought occurred to her, and she spoke up suddenly, rushing forward and shoving Eiji and Ankh apart to stop them fighting. “You guys! I hope you haven’t forgotten, but we still need to buy Chiyoko-san her tea!”

Eiji’s face transformed into a look of horror as he remembered. “Oh no! And Chiyoko-san said she would need extra help today at the cafe!” He started to panic slightly, looking around frantically.

Ankh gave a heavy sigh. “Oi, Hina.”

“Hm?” She looked at him curiously.

“Give me the money and the list, I’ll buy the damn tea.”

Hina’s face lit up. “Really? That’d be a great help!”

“Yeah sure, whatever.” He grabbed the money that Hina gave him and slouched off. “Just you two don’t be any more late!”

“Yes!” Eiji said with a smile and a nod. “Just come back to the cafe soon!”

 


End file.
